Ralph Loop

SKILL: Ralph Loop

Purpose: Autonomous completion loop - iterate until all tests pass, coverage met, type-check clean Target: Coder, Tester, Validator teammates ⚠️ Teammates Only: This skill is for coder/tester teammates in Agent Teams. Team Lead spawns teammates who execute this loop autonomously.

Quick Start

When to Use This Skill

• After first code change (Entry point)
• Tests failing or coverage low
• Type-check errors present
• Lint violations found

Quick Reference

# Ralph Loop: Autonomous iteration
iteration=0
max_iterations=7
early_escalation=false

# Check for --early flag or architecture-related failure
if [[ "$*" == *"--early"* ]] || is_architecture_failure; then
  max_iterations=2
  early_escalation=true
fi

while [ $iteration -lt $max_iterations ]; do
  echo "Iteration $((iteration + 1))/$max_iterations"

  # Run verification
  if run_all_checks; then
    echo "✓ All quality gates passed"
    break
  fi

  # Fix failures
  fix_failures

  # Update state
  update_state "$SC" "in_progress" $((iteration + 1))
  ((iteration++))
done

# Complete or escalate
if [ $iteration -eq $max_iterations ]; then
  # Message Team Lead for GPT Architect escalation
  echo "Max iterations reached. Messaging Team Lead for GPT Architect escalation..."
else
  echo "<CODER_COMPLETE>"  # All checks pass
fi

Core Concepts

Entry Point

Trigger: Immediately after first code change

Detection:

• Coder teammate makes first edit/write
• Tests run and fail
• Ralph Loop begins automatically
• TeammateIdle hook prevents premature idle on quality check failure

Quality Gates

All must pass before completion:

1. Tests: npm test - All tests pass
2. Coverage: ≥80% overall, ≥90% core modules
3. Type-check: npm run type-check or tsc --noEmit
4. Lint: npm run lint - Zero violations
5. TODOs: All SC TODOs must be [x] before <CODER_COMPLETE>
   • PLAN_PATH from execute-plan prompt OR auto-detect in .pilot/plan/in_progress/
   • grep -q "^- \[ \]" "$PLAN_PATH" must return false (no unchecked items)
6. TaskCompleted Hook: Automatically verifies gates 1-5 when teammate marks task done

Iteration Pattern

Triggers for Early Escalation: --early flag OR architecture keywords (architecture, tradeoff, design, scalability, pattern, choice) OR confidence < 0.5 (see @.claude/skills/gpt-delegation/SKILL.md)

Flow: Code change → Run checks → All pass? → Complete : Check trigger → Fix → Repeat (max iterations) → Escalate to GPT Architect if blocked

Implementation

Verification Function

run_all_checks() {
  # Tests
  npm test || return 1

  # Coverage (≥80%)
  coverage=$(npm test -- --coverage 2>&1 | grep -oP 'Lines\s+:\s+\K[\d.]+')
  (( $(echo "$coverage < 80" | bc -l) )) && return 1

  # Type-check
  npm run type-check || return 1

  # Lint
  npm run lint || return 1

  # TODOs (PLAN_PATH from execute-plan OR auto-detect)
  PLAN_PATH="${PLAN_PATH:-$(find .pilot/plan/in_progress -name "*.md" -type f | head -1)}"
  if [ -f "$PLAN_PATH" ]; then
    grep -q "^- \[ \]" "$PLAN_PATH" && return 1
  fi

  return 0
}

Fix Function

fix_failures() {
  # Priority: tests → type-check → lint → coverage
  npm test || { echo "Fixing test failures..."; }
  npm run type-check || { echo "Fixing type errors..."; }
  npm run lint || { echo "Fixing lint violations..."; }
}

Architecture Failure Detection

is_architecture_failure() {
  # Check for architecture keywords in error output
  local error_log=$(last_error 2>/dev/null || echo "")
  local arch_keywords="architecture|tradeoff|design|scalability|pattern|choice"

  if echo "$error_log" | grep -qiE "$arch_keywords"; then
    return 0  # True
  fi

  # Check confidence score (see @.claude/skills/gpt-delegation/SKILL.md)
  # confidence = 1.0 - (architecture_keywords * 0.3) - (multiple_approaches * 0.2) - (uncertainty_markers * 0.2)
  # If confidence < 0.5, trigger early escalation

  return 1  # False
}

Escalation

When Blocked

Condition: Max iterations reached (7 standard, 2 early escalation), still failing

Action: Teammate messages the team lead for GPT Architect escalation

# Teammate uses Message tool to communicate with Team Lead
echo "Messaging Team Lead for escalation..."
echo "Iterations: $iteration"
echo "Early Escalation: $early_escalation"
echo "Last error: $(last_error)"
# Message: "BLOCKED after $iteration iterations. Need GPT Architect for: $(last_error)"

Team Lead handles escalation: Reads .claude/rules/delegator/prompts/architect.md, builds delegation prompt with history, calls codex-sync.sh (workspace-write mode), applies GPT recommendations, re-spawns teammate

Early Escalation

Purpose: Rapid escalation for architecture-related failures (max 2 iterations instead of 7)

Triggers: 1) --early flag (explicit request), 2) Architecture keywords in errors (architecture, tradeoff, design, scalability, pattern, choice), 3) Low confidence < 0.5 (see @.claude/skills/gpt-delegation/SKILL.md rubric)

Behavior: Faster delegation to GPT Architect, ideal for complex design decisions requiring expert input

No-Excuses Enforcement

PROHIBITED Phrases: "I cannot", "Too complex", "Out of scope", "Unable to"

Required Pattern: on_blocker_detected → GPT delegation → User collaboration (never "give up")

Details: @.claude/skills/ralph-loop/REFERENCE.md - Full enforcement algorithm

Further Reading

Internal: @.claude/skills/ralph-loop/REFERENCE.md - Advanced patterns, state machine details | @.claude/skills/tdd/SKILL.md - Red-Green-Refactor cycle | @.claude/skills/gpt-delegation/SKILL.md - GPT escalation patterns

External: The Pragmatic Programmer | Working Effectively with Legacy Code

Version: claude-pilot 4.4.50